Paul and ALL: Article...PC Growth in Asia to grow 17%...
japanbiztech.com
Intel President Predicts 17% Asian PC Growth
May 7, 1997 (Taipei) -- The Asia-Pacific PC market will grow 17 percent compounded annually over the next five years, predicts the president of Intel, Craig Barrett. He was speaking at last week's Intel Asia Technology Forum in Taipei.
Barrett said Intel's MMX and Pentium processors will retain leadership positions in the region during the period.
Barrett, along with Stan Shih, chairman of Acer Inc., and Morris Chang, chairman of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd., agreed that PCs will continue their strong growth in the future. The three made their comments during a panel discussion at the forum.
Barrett said Intel will continue to strengthen its partnerships with Taiwan manufacturers.
TSMC's Chang painted a rosy picture for the DRAM market, and predicted overall semiconductor industry growth of 7 to 12 percent in 1997. Chang said TSMC plans to invest NT$25 billion next year and NT$39 billion the following year to expand production.
Acer's Shih focused his comments on the PC market, where he said models priced from US$1,000 and US$2,000 will become top sellers. He said PC manufacturers will continue to add functions to PCs that will drive demand for more storage and better displays. This trend also will boost demand for semiconductors, he said.
During the forum, Intel also introduced the newest add-on cards for its Pentium II microprocessor. The Pentium II, which was introduced on May 7, is Intel's key weapon in the fight to hold its top slot in the global CPU market. Intel's status has been challenged recently by competitors such as Cyrix Corp. and Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
In the past, manufacturers of computers, mainboards, add-on cards, chips and software products were guaranteed to be "on the winning side" by going with Intel. However this year, AMD introduced the K6 chip, which it claims is as fast as Intel's Pentium Pro and is 25 percent cheaper. Later this month a similar product from Cyrix Corp., the M2, is scheduled to hit the market.
Nevertheless, Intel said that the Pentium II will enable it to hold onto its market lead. The first-generation Pentium Pro was a niche product for high-end desktop computers and servers; the Pentium II is aimed at mainstream users. The Pentium II also has a new cartridge design that boosts speed 30 percent to 40 percent over Intel's current processors. The new design reportedly was intended to frustrate Intel's competitors, which based their products on older Intel specifications.
______________________________________________________
I would say that Intel's competitors are showing serious signs of frustration. :-)
Paul, it's great to see the rumor wasn't true, that you got booted with albert. So what are you making for the little man anyway?
Michael |
